


The Art of Becoming Human

by the_vast_derp



Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel), DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Drabble Collection, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-13
Updated: 2015-08-13
Packaged: 2018-04-14 13:11:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4565829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_vast_derp/pseuds/the_vast_derp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of RenAo drabbles! These are all set after his good route finishes, and explore the ups and downs of Ren learning how to human. Some of these will be silly, some of these will be more sad, some of these might just be a lil weird, who knows! If you have any suggestions for a drabble, let me know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'll Come Back

Sunlight streamed in from the window, landing right on the face of a man with dark-blue hair and a choker around his neck. The man yawned, then rolled over to curl up and get back to sleep- except, he had forgotten which side of the bed he had slept on (or rather that he even was on a bed), and ended up falling to the hardwood floor beneath the bed with a loud thud, that startled him until he woke up with a shout. “Ah!” 

However, after a few moments his heart was able to stop pounding enough that Ren could look around and figure out what had happened. When he had been an allmate, he always slept on the bed beside Aoba, or on the floor. But he never rolled over or moved in his sleep before, so he hadn’t realized that he would do it now. And why did it hurt so much? Ren frowned deeply and rubbed his hip, where he was sure that it would bruise in the morning.

“Ren?” A sleepy voice from atop the same bed that Ren had just fallen off of asked. “What’s up, why are you on the floor? I told you, beds are a lot comfier” Aoba frowned softly and sat up to look at his lover.

“I know, I didn’t mean to. I fell off.” Ren explained in a completely straight-forward manner, without sounding too ashamed or embarrassed about it like Aoba probably would have been in his situation. Aoba just looked at him for a minute, then started to laugh, even as Ren’s face gave him a blank, confused expression. 

“Sorry, I’m not laughing at you” Aoba promised, reaching out to ruffle Ren’s hair. “Just, I don’t know. It’s cute. You’re cute” He finally told him.

“Um” Ren said, blinking. “Thank you” He finally replied, nodding. Normally he would thank Aoba if he said the same thing when he was an allmate, so this was okay, right? Probably. 

“Come on” Aoba grinned as he stood up, then reached out to help Ren do the same. “Are you okay?” He asked, rubbing Ren’s hip where the other had been doing it earlier. 

Out of habit, Ren didn’t respond immediately- rather, he instead began to look inside to asses how he was feeling and how his diagnostics were looking. Until he realized that there were no numbers inside his head to tell him how he was doing. There were no charts coming up either, so all Ren could say was “I am not sure”, to which Aoba looked confused. 

“Huh, how do you- oh, you’re used to being told how you are, huh? Sorry, you don’t really have that anymore. So it’s just up to you to decide how you’re doing. Like, how you’re feeling and if you have any physical or emotional pain” He tried to explain. Yet Ren just stared at him with another blank expression. “Like, okay. Your hip right now, you probably hit it on the floor, right?” Ren nodded. “And it’s probably like, not comfortable there right now, right? Okay, that’s called pain. So like, you could say your hip is hurting- well, you’d sound like Tae, but you could say it” He explained with a small laugh.

“My hip hurts” Ren repeated, then looked down at Aoba. “That doesn’t sound like Tae. Her voice is higher than mine” He said. 

Now, it was Aoba’s turn to look at him blankly, before laughing again. “I didn’t mean literally sound like her, Ren. I just meant… oh, never mind.” He said, shaking his head. “Hey, it’s morning anyways, we might as well stay awake and get ready for the day” He said, noticing that the sun was shining brightly outside. “Lets get dressed” He smiled over at Ren, then began to undress.

Although some people would consider it strange to undresses in front of a person you had technically only met a few months ago, Aoba thought nothing of it. He’d never thought anything of Ren seeing him naked as an allmate, so why would he now? Besides, they’d seen each other in intimate ways already.

So the two of them quickly got dressed, with Ren taking slightly longer than Aoba, only because he was still getting used to fixing the buttons on his jeans. Finally though, he was able to get the button inside the hole, and followed Aoba downstairs to the kitchen where Tae had already set up breakfast for the two boys.

“Thank you” The two boys said to the pink-haired woman, before quickly eating their breakfast. As always, the food was warm, and amazing- the perfect way to start off the day.

Soon after he finished his meal, Aoba checked his watch, then stood up quickly. “Ah, I gotta go to work!” He exclaimed, quickly putting his plate in the sink. “Sorry grams, I don’t have time to wash the dishes. Ren, can you do it for me? If you need help Tae can show you, I’m sure” He spoke quickly from the living room as he laced up his shoes. When he stood up to grab his bag, though, he noticed that Ren had walked over to him, and was now looking at him expectedly. “What’s up?” 

“I can’t stay and do the dishes, I have to come with you” Ren stated.

Aoba stared back at him for a second, then shook his head. “No, Ren, not.. not really, anymore. Remember, we talked about this. At first you could come hang out with me because you were still kinda sick, but now… you can’t really go there and just sit with me like you used to. I’m gonna be working” He explained, reaching up to ruffle Ren’s hair. “I know, it’s weird for both of us, but I’ll be okay” He promised with a smile.

“How will you know where to go on deliveries?” Ren asked with a frown.

“Well, I’ve got my coil.”

“What about if the brats bother you?”

“Well I can defend myself. Besides, you usually didn’t bother them either”

“What about… me then?” Ren finally asked, his voice becoming quiet.

“You?” Aoba repeated, his mouth forming a small “o” shape. “Hey, you’ll be okay, I promise. Tae’s gonna take care of you, and I’ll be home tonight. And you know what, I’ll call Tae’s coil when I’m on break, and we can talk then” He promised with an encouraging smile. “For now, maybe Tae can teach you to play a board game or something” He suggested, hoping to brighten the mood of the room a little. Although it was fairly obvious that Ren still wasn’t comfortable with the situation, he didn’t know how to express it, so he simply nodded.

“Um, hug?” He asked, holding his arms out. Aoba grinned and pulled the other into his arms.

“Of course, and there’ll be more of that when I get back” He promised, ruffling Ren's hair. "Now be a good boy while I'm gone" He chuckled softly, since he knew that he would be saying those same words six months ago, when Ren was an allmate still. 

"I will" Ren nodded.

"Good. Now... I've really gotta go" Aoba told him, zipping up his jacket. "See ya later, you two!" He grinned, before running out the door and to Junk Shop Heibon. But as promised, he came back for Ren later. He always did.


	2. I'll Accept You

“Hey there… Oh, yeah. I’m just sitting here, really. .. No, I have today off. I’m assuming you’re supposed to be at work now? Haha. … Oh, you want to? Sure. … Wait, why? … Oh, He is? Wow. Okay. I mean, does he know? … Huh. Okay, I’ll ask him. Yeah. If we can’t make it I’ll let you know. Alright, bye Koujaku” Aoba let out a small sigh as he hung up his coil, then turned his head to Ren, who seemed to be practicing his writing at the time. 

“Hey, Ren. I got a question for you” He announced. Apparently, Ren hadn’t even been listening to his end of the conversation, because he looked surprised when he heard his name. 

“Okay, I have an answer.”

“Right, well. How would you feel about going to see Koujaku soon?”

“I suppose that would be okay. He did visit me in the hospital” Ren replied rather nonchalantly. He was one of Aoba’s friends that Ren got along with, actually. Clear was still a little too excitable for him, Mink was hardly around anymore (and didn’t seem to like anybody but Aoba), Noiz and Aoba hardly got along now, and Virus and Trip, well… Ren didn’t quite trust them. But Koujaku and him had known each other for a while, and Koujaku was good for Aoba, so Ren liked him.

“But-” Aoba said, interrupting Ren’s train of thought and making him look back up from his desk. “Beni would be there this time” 

“...Oh.” Ren replied, after staying silent for a minute. Beni would be a different story, then. Not because Ren didn’t like Beni- quite the contrary, actually. Other than Aoba, Beni could be considered Ren’s best friend. But they hadn’t seen each other since Ren was an allmate, and now, Ren didn’t know how Beni would react to seeing him. “Did Koujaku tell him what happened?”

“He tried to” Aoba replied with a small frown. “I guess he got mad and flew off when he did, though. Like he just didn’t want to hear it” Aoba explained with a small frown. From what his friend had told him, it sounded like Beni was in some kind of denial. He never had visited Ren in the hospital, after all, and after he had come back to Koujaku, he had refused to talk about Ren. Since then, Koujaku hadn’t even brought it up.

But it had to happen some time. Koujaku and Aoba didn’t want their friendship to be ruined because they had just stopped talking, or something. So the two had to see each other again. Even if Ren tried to resist seeing him, Aoba would find a way to bring them together. 

Luckily, he didn’t have to. “Well, if Beni will agree to meet me, I would enjoy seeing him again” Ren finally agreed, after taking some time to consider the options. But he noticed a funny feeling coming up in his stomach that seemed to pull his lips down into a small frown. “My stomach feels strange” He told Aoba, automatically putting a hand over his stomach.

“Yeah, you’re nervous” Aoba chuckled softly and patted the top of Ren’s head. “Sometimes that happens. Don’t worry, I’m sure everything’ll be alright. Beni won’t… well, I can’t say he won’t get mad. But he won’t peck your eyes out or anything” Aoba tried to cheer Ren up with a joke, but it seemed like Ren didn’t really get it, so he quickly changed the subject. “Hey, how about you show me how your kanji is coming along?” He suggested with a small smile. Later that night he’d call Koujaku again, and they would set up a time and place to meet. Right now, all he needed was Ren by his side.

The next day, Koujaku and Aoba agreed to meet for lunch- with Beni and Ren coming along, to meet again- this time, in a completely different context than ever before. Aoba held on to Ren’s hand as they walked up to the meeting place, hoping to give him the support he needed- because Aoba knew that Ren was nervous. He could feel it more than see it, but he knew.

By the time Ren and Aoba walked up to the cafe together, Koujaku had already sat down at a table on the small patio attached to it, with Beni sitting on his shoulder and two empty chairs on front of him. While he waited for Aoba and Ren to show up he let his feet lay on the table in front of him, but as soon as they walked up to the table he stood up to greet them and shake their hands- an action which still confused Ren, but he followed along.

“Hey you two” He smiled, looking back to Beni and waving him closer. “Hey, Beni. This is Ren.. I mean, you know him, but, you know. The new him” He tried to explain. Honestly, he was getting flustered trying to explain it in a way that would keep Beni calm. Yet, as Beni flew around Ren and seemed to examine his new body, he didn’t say a word. After a minute, he flew back to Koujaku and perched on his shoulder.

“I’m glad that you’re alive and well” He finally said, his voice much more calm than anybody had expected- even Koujaku looked a little taken aback- of course, he didn’t want to say anything, lest Beni get pissed off. 

Luckily, Aoba spoke up to save the tense situation. With a smile, he took Ren’s hand and said “Yeah, we really are too”, with a small squeeze to prompt Ren to say something.

“Thank you” Ren finally said, nodding to Beni. 

With the tense moment gone, Koujaku broke into a wide smile and clapped Aoba on the back. “Alright! Well I’m hungry, so let’s sit down and eat” He suggested, pulling a chair out for Aoba. “I’m starving”


End file.
